Apollo-Ridge

District 31 American Legion Baseball playoffs are scheduled to resume Saturday with two semifinal round games. Regular-season champion Latrobe will play host to rival Unity at 2 p.m at Legion Keener Field. Game 2 of the best-of-three series will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at Whitney. Latrobe opened the playoffs...

After finishing second in the HSSN Trib Cup standings a year ago, Neshannock used a perfect season to claim the top spot. It was another strong school year athletically for the seven Lawrence County schools inside the WPIAL, but none compared to the overall resume put forth by Neshannock in...

Basketball in the A-K Valley will have a bit of a different look next winter. The WPIAL board of directors approved section alignments for the next two-year cycle in boys and girls basketball on June 13. Several A-K Valley teams were impacted. Here’s a look at some of the changes:...

2022 Valley News Dispatch Baseball All-Stars Player of the Year Justin Brannagan Deer Lakes, Sr., P/INF Justin Brannagan had a propensity this year for coming up big in clutch playoff scenarios. In February, Deer Lakes trailed Blackhawk by one point in the final seconds of a WPIAL Class 4A first-round...

2022 Valley News Dispatch Softball All-Stars Player of the Year Katie Armstrong Burrell, Jr., P If the regular season didn’t already show it, then a WPIAL Class 4A quarterfinal game against Belle Vernon proved just how dominant Burrell junior pitcher Katie Armstrong was throughout the spring. Armstrong held a potent...

Sarah Bonelli Christopher graduated from Apollo-Ridge in 2013 and went on the play four years as a midfielder at Lock Haven. She just missed the opportunity to play for her high school alma mater, as the Vikings girls soccer program was formed a couple of years later. “I was sad...

Deer Lakes senior Carson McCoy doesn’t have to wait long to run at the PIAA track and field championships at Shippensburg University. He will be on the track at 9 a.m. Friday morning in defense of his Class 2A boys 1,600-meter title. It is the first of many events on...

Sydney Selker School: Freeport Class: Sophomore Sport: Softball Report card: Selker threw a complete game, allowing one run on five hits against Central Valley in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs on Wednesday. Selker batted .483 and hit seven home runs while driving in 27 runs during the regular...

Jacob Danka Class: Senior School: Deer Lakes Sport: Baseball Report card: Senior pitcher, first baseman and outfielder Jacob Danka had a productive week for the Lancers as he went 2 for 3 with a double and four RBIs in a 12-2 win over Valley on Monday. He followed up with...

Apollo-Ridge took advantage of four Jeannette errors and got a grand slam from junior Brandon Butler and solid pitching from Brady Schrock in a 10-0 victory Tuesday in a Section 2-2A battle. The Vikings, who have clinched a berth in the WPIAL playoffs, improved to 6-3 overall and 5-2 in...

Knocking in 13 runs would be a relatively good statistic for most high school baseball players in Western Pennsylvania … for a season. Brandon Butler needed just two games to reach that mark in what could be a special 2022 campaign for the junior shortstop and his Apollo-Ridge teammates. Butler...

Weather permitting, Wednesday is lined up and down with WPIAL section softball games still in the early days of the 2022 season. However, it’s not too early to point out some of the key games in each classification. • Section 2-6A, North Allegheny visits Norwin. The Tigers and Knights are...

Eli Yofan Fox Chapel, 6-2, Sr., Guard Eli Yofan averaged 19.3 points throughout the 2021-22 boys basketball season, but he was limited for most of Fox Chapel’s WPIAL Class 6A title game against North Hills early last month at the Petersen Events Center. But as he did all season, the...

Kiski Area coach Corey Smith has come full circle with the Cager Classic. He was the East MVP in 2002, an assistant under Greg Hutcherson and now the head coach for the East as the Cager Classic returns after a two-year hiatus brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. The event...

Last spring was a celebration as district athletes returned to the diamond after the 2020 season was canceled because of covid-19 shutdowns. Baseball thrived throughout the WPIAL as six new champions were crowned, some in dramatic fashion. That success carried over to the state playoffs as WPIAL teams captured two...

Last spring was a celebration as district athletes returned to the diamonds after the 2020 season was canceled because of the covid-19 shutdowns. Softball was a success throughout as the WPIAL crowned four new champions while Laurel and West Greene remained on top in 2A and A. District softball squads...

Apollo-Ridge qualified for the WPIAL baseball playoffs last year for the first time since 2014. A-R landed the 14th seed in Class 2A and faced No. 3 Carmichaels, which defeated the Vikings, 12-1. “It is very early, but we have a great turnout so far as 23 players showed up...

The Apollo-Ridge softball team has a new coach but the same goal. Eric Kowalczyk has taken over for John Kinnamon, who now is coaching at Kiski Area. Kowalczyk previously served as JV coach for two years. “I’m not just teaching the girls softball,” Kowalczyk said. “I always try to teach...

Tuesday’s games Boys basketball Class 5A First round 8-1 Brashear (8-10) at 7-3 Highlands (18-7) 7 p.m. Winner plays: Winner of 7-1 Laurel Highlands (25-0)/3-9 Elizabethtown (16-10) on Friday in the second round (site and time TBD) Layup lines: Brashear’s postseason run began with an upset victory over Obama in...

As Ray Bartha prepares his Apollo-Ridge girls basketball team for Tuesday’s PIAA Class 2A first-round playoff game at District 10 champion West Middlesex, he also is moving forward with his plans to transition away from the school’s athletic director position after 14 years. The Apollo-Ridge School Board accepted and approved...

BOYS Class 5A Quarterfinals 5-Highlands (17-6) at 4-Penn Hills (18-4) 7 p.m. Thursday Winner plays: 8-Hampton (13-10) at 1-Laurel Highlands (22-0) Monday in semifinals (site and time TBD) Layup lines: Highlands is coming off a dominating 76-40 victory over Albert Gallatin in the first round Monday. Jimmy Kunst scored 24...

Greg Fox figured it might go like this. The Apollo-Ridge boys basketball coach saw the writing of a bridge year on the wall after a successful 2020-21 season that included a trip to the WPIAL playoffs. “No one lost as much as we did as far as graduation,” said Fox,...

Monday’s games Boys First round Class 5A 9-Kiski Area (15-7) at 8-Hampton (12-10) 7 p.m. Monday Winner plays: Winner of 1-Laurel Highlands (21-0)/16-Woodland Hills (8-14) on Thursday in quarterfinals Layup lines: Kiski Area already tripled its win total from a year ago under first-year coach Corey Smith, who played for...

Ryan Reinsfelder Class: Senior School: Springdale Sport: Basketball Report card: Reinsfelder sank eight 3-pointers and scored 27 points to lead the Dynamos to a 78-63 win over rival Riverview on Tuesday. He missed six weeks with an ankle injury, but has returned to form as an outside shooting threat. How’d...

Apollo-Ridge and St. Joseph did something Wednesday night they rarely had done this month: play a basketball game. Despite all the down time, the Vikings girls didn’t lose their free-throw shooting touch. Apollo-Ridge shot 30 of 40 from the free-throw line and posted a 66-55 victory in a home nonsection...